Turkey stops shelling PYD positions before ceasefire begins

The six-year-long Syrian unrest is observing its first agreed truce between rival groups as of Feb. 27, following lengthy diplomatic work by the United States and Russia. The two countries' foreign ministers, Sergei Lavrov and John Kerry, reached a preliminary deal in their Munich meeting earlier this month that later turned into a multiparty agreement involving the Syrian regime and the Free Syrian Army (FSA). 

The situation in Syria is still very fragile and there is little hope that this "cessation of hostilities" will last very long. The fact that there are various armed groups in Syria with different point of interests, under the influence of several regional and world powers, makes the sustainability of this truce very difficult.
 
A sustainable truce would ease international efforts for a political solution to the Syrian problem in line with the U.N. Security Council's resolution, as U.N. Special Envoy Steffan di Mistura announced that stalled negotiations between the regime and opposition would begin on March 7 in Geneva.

However, it's very hard to find a diplomat in Ankara - Turkish or foreign - speaking optimistically about the continuation of the truce for very long, given the complexity of the Syrian unrest and the contrasting interests of relevant parties. 

The Turkish leadership is also not very optimistic about the situation but it is careful to voice full support for the agreement. Presidential spokesperson ?brahim Kal?n expressed Turkey's worries about the Syrian ceasefire deal at a press conference a day before the ceasefire was set to begin. 

"We support this ceasefire in principal. But the fact that Russian planes' bombardments and al-Assad's forces' attacks on the ground have been continuing - during...